Temper Gem
by mtampiquena
Summary: When Banzai and Amethyst first met, neither knew who or what the other person was. But soon after meeting, they became great friends, and possibly more than friends. It was a gem that brought them together, but will it be a Gem that tears them apart? Can they always be there for each other, even when the other does the 'unforgivable?


**This is just a ship that I like because I feel that both Banzai and Amethyst have a lot in common, if you don't like this ship, please don't be hateful in your reviews. If you do enjoy this, I will continue it. Enjoy! :)**

* * *

"Man, I'm starving!" Banzai complained as his stomach let out a loud growl. "When are we gonna find something to eat!?"

Shenzi, who was laying on a rock in front of him, lifted her head and frowned. "Does it look like I can answer that?"

Banzai whimpered and rolled to his side, his stomach now giving him cramps. Him, Shenzi, and Ed were sitting on a few rocks near their home in the Elephant Graveyard. It was right around lunch time for the trio, and none of them had found anything to eat, as usual. So they gave up the attempt and tried to ignore the pain in their stomachs along with Banzai's growling, and were failing miserably.

Ed, who was face up on a rock next to Banzai, let out a few grunts and giggles. (Why don't we try to find something then?)

"Gee Ed, I wonder why I hadn't come up with that? Especially since it was somethin' we did _ten minutes ago_!" Banzai yelled. Ed frowned slightly and went back to staring up at the sky.

"Are you done complaining? 'Cause if you are, then shut up! Like your stomach isn't making enough noise on its own." Shenzi said.

Banzai frowned with drooping ears. "I can't help it, I'm so hungry!" he whined.

"Well, what do you want me to do?"

"Feed me."

At this, Shenzi sat up and glared. "That was a rhetorical, genius."

Banzai groaned before sitting up. "Well, would it _kill_ somebody to feed me?!"

"Hey, bark breath, you're not the only one starving here! So suck it up!" Then she added, "Unless you're desperate enough to go into the Pridelands for something."

Banzai's eye widened at the idea. Of course it had struck him as an option, but then there was the whole 'He'd be killed if someone saw him' thing that made him re-think it. And since thinking was a thing he did usually when he was hungry and bored, he weighted his options again. On one paw, he'd no longer be starving and his stomach would shut up. On the other paw, he could be killed, or placed under cruel and unusual torture, not to mention he'd still be hungry.

 _Eh, what I got to lose?_ he thought before making his decision.

"You know what? I don't care! I'm gonna go find something!" he said as he got up and marched towards the border of their lands. But before he could go farther Shenzi ran and stopped in front of him, blocking his path.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" she demanded.

"I'm gonna find some lunch, why?" he responded plainly, as if what he was about to do wasn't suicidal and really stupid.

"What are you, insane? If those lions find you, you're gonna end up _being_ lunch!" she yelled.

Banzai only frowned in irritation. "Well, let's hope I find somethin' before they find me." he replied before stepping around Shenzi and making his way towards the border.

* * *

There was a loud, high-pitched _ping_ as a bluish-white beam of light appeared from a smooth crystal pad that was hidden behind a few trees and tall yellow grass, startling a nearby herd of antelopes. When the light disappeared three Gems, a red one, a white one, and a purple one were seen standing on the pad. The Crystal Gems surveyed the area before stepping off the Warp Pad. Garnet looked around before adjusting her shades.

"The artifact is here somewhere." she said simply.

Pearl, who was looking at the ground in slight disgust, made her way towards the tall Gem. "Well, we better hurry and find it. I don't want to spend anymore time here than what we need to."

"Aw, c'mon, Pearl!" Amethyst exclaimed. "Give it a chance! It's cool here!" Then she crouched down as her body was consumed by a bright light before she reappeared as an antelope. She then began to hop around in a circle while laughing loudly.

"Amethyst, focus! We need to find that artifact before something else does!" Pearl demanded, then cried out as Amethyst hopped over her.

"Amethyst, we need you on this mission." Garnet said plainly. At this, Amethyst stopped in her tracks. "Now come on." She added before walking off in the direction of a large pointy rock in the distance.

Pearl gave her a small smirk. "Yes, come on, Amethyst." she said smugly and followed after Garnet.

"Ugh, fine." the purple gem said before shape-shifting back to her normal form and walking after them.

* * *

Banzai looked around the tall yellow-green grass, most of his body hidden from view of anything that could be passing by. He had his sights set on a herd of antelope that had settled in the open grasslands while he was looking for food. Quickly, he inspected each of them before settling on a young adolescent that had relatively enough meat to last him until dinner. If there was a dinner.

A wide smile grew on the hyena's face as he slowly advanced on the herd. When he was close enough to see details on the herbivores, he barked and leaped into view. The antelopes let out startled neighs before breaking into a sprint. But Banzai wasn't planning on losing them so easily, he ran as fast as he could towards the one he had picked out. It was fast and far ahead of any other members in its herd, leaving it in plain sight for Banzai. As he narrowed in on it, he began to snap his jaws at its legs. The already panicking antelope ran even faster, with Banzai hot on its tail.

But what the hyena hadn't noticed was the huge drop in the ground, so when he reached it at full speed, he was sent tumbling painfully through the grass and dirt. His legs and the back of his neck were the most impacted areas to the rocks and dried-up plants as he plowed right through them. He grunted and gasped before he managed to fall in a small ditch, stopping him from tumbling further. He groaned as he struggled to stand on all fours and shook most of the dirt from his body. Slowly, he crawled out of the ditch, and watched the antelope he'd been chasing run away until turning into a black dot in the distance.

"No!" he yelled and groaned loudly. "Come on! Give me a break!" He'd been so close, and now he was going to starve. No, no he refused to go back empty-handed. He checked himself briefly, and other than the hard scrapes on his legs and the pain at the back of his neck, he thought he was in good shape to try again.

So, shaking some more of the dirt from his body, Banzai walked off in a different direction. Forget antelope, he'd just find something else to eat.

* * *

"Oh, we've looked everywhere! Where could it be?" Pearl exclaimed in frustration.

Garnet looked over towards the white Gem from where she stood, holding a boulder the size of a laundry machine with one hand. "We've only been here for ten minutes, Pearl."

"Yeah, and you've done nothing but complain the whole time!" Amethyst yelled as she finished looking through another patch of dry grass.

Pearl blushed slightly in embarrassment, but she wasn't planning on digging through the filth of the outdoors. This was the first mission where a Gem artifact wasn't found in a Gem location, so Pearl was very inexperienced. "Well, I still don't understand why it's taking so long to find it. It's a magical item and this planet is very plain, I would think it would stand out."

"Well, it doesn't. Now are you going to help or not?" Amethyst asked.

Pearl rolled her eyes before sighing and walking towards a patch of grass near Amethyst. Very carefully, she sifted through it before coming across something mahogany in the dirt. The white gem raised an eyebrow before slowly wiping a bit of dirt off of it, causing the patch to glow slightly. She gasped. "I think I found it!" she exclaimed.

Garnet quickly set the boulder she had been holding down as Amethyst turned around towards the white gem. The three of them saw the glowing red spot in the dirt as Amethyst reached to grab it. But before she could, there was a low rumbling as the ground began to shake. All three Gems looked up from where they were in confusion, until they saw a dark black line against the horizon that was coming towards them rather fast.

"What is that?" Pearl asked, squinting against the afternoon sun.

Garnet placed one hand over her head to get a better look before finally seeing what it was. Without warning, she grabbed Pearl and Amethyst and threw them in a nearby ditch before jumping in herself.

"Garnet, what are you-?!" Pearl yelled before Garnet cut her off by pushing her head down with her hand. The rumbling got louder and louder just as an antelope leaped over them. Then another, and another, before pretty soon a whole herd of antelopes passed by and jumped over the ditch then running off. Huge clouds of dust rose as the rumbling and patting of hooves got quieter and quieter before fading into silence.

When Garnet lifted her head, she turned to the spot where the artifact lay, only to see nothing but hoof prints and matted out grass.

"The artifact is gone." she announced.

"What!?" Pearl demanded as she rose from the ditch and cried out in shock. "No! Oh, where could it be!?"

"The stampede! They probably lifted it out from where it was and now they have it!" Amethyst called as she pointed out in the direction where the stampede fled.

Pearl groaned. "Well, _now_ how are we supposed to get it? Any of those antelopes could have it! It'll be impossible to find out which of them could possibly-!"

"That one over there." Garnet stated as she pointed towards a small dot in the distance that was racing away from the herd and to the left of the savanna towards an open field.

Pearl stared plainly into the distance while Amethyst smiled widely. "Well, then let's go!" she exclaimed before shape-shifting into a cheetah, her fur the color lilac with dark purple spots and a few strands of it falling in front of her left eye. She growled before running off.

"But, Amethyst!" Pearl called out but was soon talking to dust as the purple Gem raced off. The white Gem groaned in frustration. "Well, what do we do now?"

"We divide, and conquer." Garnet replied before walking off after Amethyst's dust trail. Pearl sighed before following, this was going to be a _very_ long day.

* * *

After about an hour of chasing, Banzai managed to catch up with a herd of zebras that had stopped around the water hole near Priderock. He knew that any closer and a lion, or to his fear Mufasa, would see him, so he had to be fast. But with all the zebras clumped together, it was hard to pick out individuals. He squinted hard in attempts to tell them apart, but instead saw something else. Amongst the overlapping black and white stripes, was a small patch of tan, and only when a stray zebra moved did he realize it was an antelope.

But it wasn't the antelope that caught Banzai's attention, it was the hexagonal red rock that hung from what Banzai guessed was a black vine on its neck. At least, he thought it was a rock, he raised an eyebrow in confusion, what was the thing? He'd never seen a red rock before, but the more he looked at it, the more he was convinced that it wasn't a rock. The rocks he'd seen were either gray, brown, or even a light tan, but this one was bright mahogany and was clean and smooth along its edges, other rocks were rigid and uneven in their cuts. But if it wasn't a rock, then what else could it be? And how did it get on that antelope's neck?

Banzai would've stared longer if it weren't for yet another strong cramp from his stomach that reminded him he still had a job to do. He didn't come her to inspect his prey's odd sense in fashion, he came to get something to eat and he wasn't leaving without something in his stomach.

He let out a small growl as he lowered himself even more to the ground and got even closer to the herbivore. At the same time, a certain purple cheetah was sneaking her way towards the same antelope on the opposite side of Banzai's view.

Amethyst had chased after the antelope until tracking it to the herd of zebras. Still in her cheetah form, she managed to sneak past various zebras without startling the herd.

Both carnivores snuck closer and closer towards their target, neither knowing that they were both about to see just how hard their heads could be, literally.

Banzai licked his teeth with a wicked smile on his face, before barking loudly and pouncing into the air.

Amethyst smirked at how easy she thought this would be, before grunting and leaping into the air towards her prey.

The antelope saw both carnivores leap towards it, before calmly but quickly moving a few feet out of the way. Amethyst and Banzai barely had a chance to register it before crashing into each other hard. Both let out a groan as they fell hard to the ground, Amethyst losing her cheetah form and morphing back to normal as Banzai laid on the ground, both rubbing their heads with their eyes closed in pain. At seeing Banzai, the herd raced off in fear, but for once the hyena wouldn't be chasing after them.

As Amethyst slowly recovered from the impact, she opened one eye and raised an eyebrow at the wolf thing in front of her. No, it wasn't a wolf, a little too small and too gray. A dog then, but what would a dog be doing out here all alone? Whatever it was, it seemed pretty muscular in her opinion, not to mention its thick eyebrows. Another minute of observing and the Gem could see that it was a male.

Banzai groaned again as he tried to get up, only for him to stumble and fall over. The impact left his head throbbing and his vision unfocused to where he saw three purple humans in front of him. At the thought of humans, Banzai's eyes snapped wide open as he gasped and tried to get up again, but he attempted too quickly which only made his throbbing head worse. He slowly lowered himself back to the ground and squinted slightly, waiting for his vision to clear up, and when it did instead of seeing three humans, he now saw only one. A really short one, and it, or her based on her long lilac hair had dark purple skin. She wore a gray-purple tunic and a black tang-top under it along with white boots and black leggings with stars cut out on her knees. She stared at him in confusion, as if seeing a hyena was the weirdest thing ever. _That makes two of us,_ he thought.

The girl slowly stood up and raised her hand out as if to touch him, only for Banzai to growl and back away, his teeth bared in and ears flat against his head in warning. The girl pulled her hand back, her eyes wide in surprise, before opening her mouth and actually talking to him.

"Uh, hey there, little guy." she said uncertainly and reached out for him again. Banzai backed away further, still not trusting her intentions. "Oh, no no, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you." Seeing that the dog wasn't responding, Amethyst slowly crouched down to her knees so his face came to her chest. She then flashed him a small smile, hoping he wouldn't run off. "Come here."

Banzai stopped growling and raised an eyebrow, unsure of how to react. On one paw, she could be lying and just waiting for him to let his guard down long enough to kill him. But on the other, if she wanted to kill him, wouldn't she have done it when he was vulnerable from the hit? And she didn't seem as bad as most humans he had seen in the past. Taking the chance, Banzai slowly stood straight, and took a step towards her. The human smiled a little wider, and feeling more relaxed, Banzai stepped a few feet closer. He stopped when she was only inches from petting his head. She lowered her hand a bit more, but Banzai was still unsure, and moved back. She stared at him attentively as he stared back, before he hesitantly lifted his head towards her hand.

The girl let out a small laugh as she gently began to scratch his head, then slowly moved towards his ears. Banzai, now completely relaxed, closed his eyes and smiled widely, making her laugh a little louder.

"That's one charming smile you got there. Wonder what a dog's doing out here on his own." she said.

At this, Banzai's ears pricked up as he backed away and glared. "Eh man, I ain't no dog! We ain't even related!" he said, before his eyes widened and he clamped his front paws on his mouth.

The girl stared wide eyed. "You can talk?" she asked.

Banzai stared back at her, before slowly lowering his paws from his mouth. "Uh, yeah." he replied and gave her a nervous smile.

The human kept a blank face, before smiling widely and laughing. "Whoa, that's cooler than anything I've ever seen!"

The hyena stared a little shocked at her reaction. "It is?" he asked.

She nodded. "But, if you're not a dog, then what _are_ you?"

"I'm a hyena, you, uh, you'd see 'em a lot around here." he replied uncertainly. "But I guess you ain't from here, huh?"

"Nope. You could say that I come from a whole different world."

"What do ya' mean?"

The girl smirked slightly. "Hey, I answered your question now you answer mine; if you can talk, then you gotta have a name right?"

"Uh, yeah." Banzai replied.

"Well, what is it?"

The hyena hesitated before replying, "Banzai. Name's Banzai."

"Banzai." she echoed, before raising a hand to her chest. "My name's Amethyst."

"Amethyst?" Banzai asked. Then for some odd reason, he smiled. "That's a nice name."

Amethyst smirked again and waved it off. "Aw, thanks. I got it from this." Then she pulled her tunic down slightly to reveal a purple round rock on her chest.

Banzai's ears pricked up in shock. "Uh, what's that?"

"It's my Gem." Amethyst replied bluntly before covering it again, though a corner of it still poked out.

"Your Gem?" Banzai repeated. So that's what those colorful rocks were called.

Amethyst nodded. "Yeah, and if you're wondering, no I'm not a human, I'm a Gem. We... don't exactly come from Earth."

Banzai raised his eyebrow again. "Not from Earth, well then where are ya' from?"

The Gem would've responded, had it not been for someone interrupting her by yelling, "Amethyst!"

Banzai and Amethyst turned around to see Pearl and Garnet walking towards them, Pearl with her spear in hand. "There you are, what are you doing? We're supposed to be looking for that arti-!" The white Gem stopped short upon seeing Banzai behind her teammate.

The hyena glared and bared his teeth, his ears flat on his head as he began to growl again. Pearl merely scrunched up her nose is disgust. "What is that thing?" she demanded.

"Uh, _he_ , is a hyena." Amethyst said in annoyance. "And I don't think he likes you."

"Well, that makes two of us. What are you doing with one of those things, they could carry hundreds of diseases!" Pearl screeched. Then she began to poke at the ground near Banzai in attempts to make him leave. "Shoo, shoo! Go away!"

Banzai glared harder before barking and biting the end of her spear and latching hard. Pearl screamed and began to shake her weapon rapidly back and forth, but Banzai dug his paws into the ground so it was to no avail. Amethyst laughed out loud at the scene before her so hard that she began to hunch over. Pearl pulled at her spear hard, managing to lift Banzai off his feet though he refused to let go. The white gem glared at him as she began to violently shake her spear once again, only for her to trip on a small rock and loose her balance. She gasped and scrambled backwards before tripping and falling, letting go of her spear as Banzai growled louder. He bit harder into the spear, seemingly trying to break it, only for it to disappear into a cloud of white dust in his mouth.

The hyena gasped and stepped back, slightly confused, but returned to angrily growling at Pearl. The Gem yelped and kicked him in the face, to which he responded by biting down on her foot, making Amethyst laugh harder. Pearl turned angrily at the smaller Gem.

"Amethyst, this isn't funny! Get it off!" Pearl screeched in panic and started punching the hyena's head and yanking at his ears, only making him bite down harder.

"No way! This is priceless!" Amethyst said in between laughs, holding her stomach with both arms.

Banzai smirked inwardly at hearing her, he was starting to like this so called Gem. Then out of no where, a huge shadow that seemed to block out the sun appeared over him and Pearl, making him look up. The hyena froze in place at what he saw, a tall red woman with shades that covered half of her face looking down at him. A cold shiver went down his spine upon seeing her, along with a twinge of fear. His ears fell like rocks as a small whimper escaped him, his body involuntarily beginning to shake though he hoped no one noticed.

The woman stared down at him through her shades, probably glaring at him. "Amethyst, who is this?" she asked.

As quickly as possible, Banzai spat Pearl's foot out and stepped back in fear before stopping near Amethyst. Seeing her leader, Amethyst ceased her laughter, stood straight and slowly stepped in front of the hyena. "Garnet, um, this is Banzai." she said and smiled nervously.

The woman, Garnet, stepped towards Amethyst and pushed her aside gently, leaving Banzai at her mercy. The hyena stayed put where he was, unable to find the will to move and run for it, much like with Mufasa. No, this was worse, with Mufasa he was sure he wouldn't be killed, he'd been threatened by him before. But he had no way of predicting what this Gem would do to him.

She knelt down to about his level before extending her hand and gently petting him. Banzai moved away slightly, but made no attempt to escape, he figured that if he did what she wanted she'd go easy on him. When he moved, he caught a glimpse of a red rock, a Gem, on her palm. As soon as her hand made contact with his head he seemed to stop trembling all together, as if the red gem's touch had sucked all the fear from his being. Hesitantly, he looked up at her in confusion.

Garnet smiled slightly. "He seems nice." she said plainly. Then she stood up and stared at her other teammates. "We still have to find that artifact. Amethyst, did you find the antelope?"

"I almost had it, but it moved out of the way and ran off." the purple Gem replied.

Garnet placed a hand on her chin. "The Gem on that necklace must've given that antelope some sort of power, it can sense us now. So a head on attack probably won't work."

"We have to get back to the Temple and form a plan." Pearl stated, now up on her feet and brushing herself off.

"And fast." Garnet added. Then without another word, she jumped into the air with a hard _whoosh_ and out of sight. Pearl looked down at Banzai and gave him a stink eye before jumping into the air as well.

Amethyst stared out into the sky before turning to Banzai. "Uh, sorry. They're also Gems, Pearl and Garnet. Pearl's the annoying perfectionist and Garnet's our leader."

Banzai nodded slowly before saying, "Pearl's a jerk, man. Her kicks hurt, too." and rubbing his forehead.

The Gem's eyes went wide, before she began to snicker loudly. "I know, right?! She thinks she knows everything!"

A small triumphant smirk crossed the hyena's face, now listening to it more, he thought Amethyst had a nice laugh. Then a faint _ping_ was heard, making Amethyst stop laughing and look up.

Banzai followed her gaze upward. "What was that?"

"The Warp Pad, it's how we got here." Amethyst replied. "I should probably get going."

"Oh," Banzai said sadly, his ears drooping down so slightly that no one would've seen it. "But why'd you come in the first place?"

"We were looking for an artifact that landed here."

Banzai thought back to the red gem on the antelope's neck before he crashed into Amethyst. That explained its odd behavior, most herbivores he pounced at would try to outrun him, not outsmart him. "So, that necklace thing, that was it?"

The Gem nodded. "That antelope had the artifact around its neck, which is why I tried to grab it."

"That antelope was gonna be my lunch." Banzai mumbled and pouted in annoyance. Great, three hours of chasing, but nothing to show for it. Another day of losing calories without gaining any, just great indeed.

"Oh, I didn't mean to scare it off." Amethyst said, suddenly guilty.

But Banzai just shook it off. "Eh, it ain't the first time, I'm hungry almost twenty-four seven."

Amethyst looked at him in curiosity. "Really, how come?"

Banzai frowned in slight annoyance, but continued. "Well, for starters, it's every animal for themselves out here so nothin's gonna come and feed me. Then there's the whole 'I'm not allowed to cross the border that separates the Graveyard from the Pridelands' thing too. And that's where most of the food is anyways, but if I or any other hyena crosses, we could get killed."

"And you live like that? That's unfair!" Amethyst said, slightly angered herself. Although she had no idea what a 'Pridelands' or 'Graveyard' were.

Banzai shrugged. "Yeah, but there's not much we can do." Then he turned to leave, he hadn't noticed how late it was until looking up at the sky, which was now a light blue fading into dark navy. "Well, I gotta run." he said and began to walk away. He knew it was practically chance that he met Amethyst, and chances of seeing her again were really low anyways-

"Wait." Amethyst said suddenly. Banzai stopped dead in his tracks, shocked and ecstatic at hearing her voice. Slowly, he turned around.

The Gem shifted around awkwardly before going on. "Garnet isn't just gonna leave that Gem here, so..." she trailed off and scratched the back of her head, almost embarrassed. "You might see me around."

At this, Banzai's face lit up as his heart skipped a beat. "Really?" he asked happily, his ears shot up and his tail wagging like an overgrown puppy. Then realizing his over excitement, he cleared his throat and put on a decent poker face, though his happiness was still seen through it. "I mean, really?"

Amethyst smiled at his reaction, she had to admit, he was kind of... cute. "Yeah."

Banzai had to let a wide smile grow on his face. "So... you could tell me more about you?"

"And you tell me more about this place, and yourself." she replied nodding. Then she turned around and prepared to jump, until she looked over her shoulder at Banzai and gave him a loving look, batting her eyes with a perfect smile.

Banzai's whole being seemed to stop at the sight, his heart beating faster than a cheetah when chasing a meal. The heat seemed to rise to his face so quick he thought his brain would roast, he could tell he was blushing hard. It was then that he realized how, _pretty_ the purple Gem was. And as hard as it was to do so, he broke his gaze from hers and looked at the ground, embarrassed.

He heard Amethyst giggle before hearing another hard _whoosh_ and looking up again only to see she was gone. He wasn't sure what had just happened, but he knew one thing, he was looking forward to seeing Amethyst again. So he turned and began to walk back the way he came, he'd been determined not to leave without something in his stomach, and his mission was slightly accomplished. Only instead of food in his stomach, it was butterflies.

* * *

Shenzi paced around the entrance to the skull she shared with Banzai and Ed and looked outside. The sun had already set but Banzai still wasn't back, which began to worry the matriarch. She knew how determined Banzai could get when trying to find something to eat, but this was ridiculous.

"How stubborn can that boy be?" she asked out loud.

Ed, who was laying near the right side of the den, grunted and gibbered in a worried tone something that translated to, "You don't think Mufasa got him, do you?"

At this, Shenzi turned to face him. "No, no way. Banzai's stupid, but he ain't that stupid."

Ed shrugged and gibbered that he wasn't so sure about that.

Shenzi rolled her eyes and went back to looking outside their skull, before spotting a figure in the distance. It was walking towards her, and only when it got closer did she realize it was a hyena. She let out a small sigh of relief upon seeing it was Banzai then glared slightly. "Where have you been?" she demanded.

Banzai just looked at her with wide eyes and shook his head.

Shenzi raised an eyebrow. "And what's up with you? You look like you've seen a dying vulture."

Banzai sighed. "If I told ya' what I've been witness to today, you'd think I'd lost it." was all he said before walking past her and lying down next to a small rock then closing his eyes, placing his head on his forepaws.

Shenzi merely stared at him before looking at Ed, who shrugged, just as clueless. She sighed and took her place along the left side of the skull and laid down. "I'm gonna assume that it was pretty bad then."

Banzai popped one eye open and looked at her. "Actually, it was pretty great."

Ed let out a few grunts and giggles in a questioning tone, asking what it was. But Banzai closed his eye again and turned away. "I'll tell ya' in the morning." he mumbled before drifting off to sleep.


End file.
